TECHNOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF THE PHILIPPINES

SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL DEPARTMENT

Wounded Soul: The Experiences and Survival Mechanism of Teenagers 15

to 18 years old who undergo Mental Sufferings due to Social Media.

Aguilos, Ray Angelo

Astorga, James Martin

Bañaga, Khryzelle Anne

De Roxas, Chrisjohn

Dela Cruz, Julieta

Estimar, Roan Mae

Federico, Zendy Jazmine

Laurilla, Madison Gael

Salupado, Guillien

April 2020

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 Chapter II

Review of Related Literature and Studies

Social Media Use of Teenagers

The article entitled “Teens and Social Media Use” (Madden M., Lenhart

A., Cortesi S., Gasser U., Duggan M., Smith A., Beaton M., 2013) discussed

the number of teens who say that they use a social networking site like Facebook

is still significantly higher than it is among adults. Teenagers on social media

spend much of their time observing the lives and images of their peers. Because

nowadays, teens were more exposed to the social media due to the new learning

system. And it was one of those ways to communicate with their teachers and

classmates about the schoolworks.

According to this article, teen social media users have a profile and

account on Twitter and Instagram, but some of them has more profile in

Instagram. But it always based in the preferences of the teenagers who uses

social media. Therefore, many were reported using multiple profiles or accounts

on Facebook and using different sites for some purposes or migrating to the

other platforms or to offline interactions in which they felt more freedom. Yet,

despite the overwhelming use of social media among teens, most of them were

just focusing on group participants than text messaging and offline

conversations. They still choose the preferred method of communication for very

sensitive, personal, or significant information.

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 A recent survey found that almost all teens aged 12 through 17 are online,

compared to only some adults. Among these teens, 80% have profiles on social

media sites, as compared to only 64% of the online population aged 30 and older

(Madden, M. et al. 2013). According to a study conducted by the Kaiser Family

Foundation, 11-to-18 years old spend on average over one and a half hours a

day using a computer and 27 minutes per day visiting social network sites, more

than one fourth of their daily computer use (Rideout, V.J., Foehr, U.G., &

Roberts, D.F., 2010).

The Suffering Experiences of Teenagers due to Social Media

Aristotle the great Greek philosopher said, “Man is by nature a social

animal”. Humans used the social media as a major form of entertainment together

with their family and friends. Based on the survey that conducted by Pew Research

Center (March 7 – April 10, 2018), it shows that 72.7% of the social media users

shows positive responses. Despite of the 72.7% users who respond positively,

there are roughly 41.7% of users respond negatively. This is the results of

unpleasant experiences in social media due to some circumstances like

Cyberbullying.

The study entitled “Cyberbullying and Depression in Children”

(DiMaria, L., 2020), says victims of cyberbullying can experience symptoms of

depression such as sadness, loneliness, insecurity, poor self-esteem, academic

decline, feelings of not belonging, and suicidal thoughts. Aside from Cyberbullying,

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you may also experience anxiety, depression, and mental breakdown. According

to O’Reilly, M. et al. (2018), adolescents age 11-18 years old think of social media

as a threat to mental health and a vital platform to commit Cyberbullying. They also

think that social media is major source of anxiety and depression to some

adolescent.

Based on “The experience of young people with depression: a

qualitative study” (McCann, T.V., Lubman, D. I., Clark, & E., 2011) People with

depression tend to experience a mix of emotions. They also struggle on their own

resulting for their situation to become worse and lead to self-harm and suicide. In

accordance with “The experience of the self in Canadian youth living with anxiety:

A qualitative study” (Woodgate, R., Tailor, K., Tennent, P., Wener, P., & Altman,

G., 2020) Teens revealed that they heavily suffered due to anxiety. In addition,

teens with anxiety also observe of self-scrutiny and lack of self-compassion.

Although social media is major form of entertainment and happiness, it can pose

threat to one self-being due to some circumstances.

Time on Social Media

An article entitled “Social Media and Mental Health” (Robinson, L. &

Smith, M., 2020) discusses the use of social media can lead to mental cravings.

When they get a like, a retweet, or a positive response to a tweet, their brain

releases dopamine, the same “reward” chemical that they get after winning at a

slot machine, eating chocolate, or smoking a cigarette, for example. The more they

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are rewarded, the more time they want to spend on social media, even though it

has negative consequences in other areas of their life.

The article states that “FOMO” (fear of missing out) will keep teenagers

coming back to social media over and over. Even if there are few items that cannot

wait or need urgent attention, FOMO will convince teenagers otherwise. Perhaps

they are concerned that if they do not keep up with the latest news or gossip on

social media, they will be left out of the conversation at school or at work. Perhaps

they believe that if they do not like, share, or answer to other people's posts right

away, your relationships will suffer? They use social media more often when they

are lonely, sad, nervous, or overwhelmed, to pass the time or feel connected to

others. However, frequent use of social media raises FOMO as well as feelings of

inadequacy, disappointment, and loneliness. As a result, these emotions have a

negative impact on your mood and exacerbate depression, anxiety, and stress

symptoms. When your symptoms intensify, you become more reliant on social

media, and the downward trend continues.

The article also states that Their heavy social media use could be masking

other underlying problems, such as stress, depression, or boredom. If they spend

more time on social media when they are feeling down, lonely, or bored, they may

be using it to distract themselves from unpleasant feelings or self-soothe their

moods.

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Effects of Social Media Usage in the Mental Health of Teenagers

The study entitled: “Teens and Social Media Use: What’s the impact”

(Mayo Clinic Staff, 2019) Social Media may affect teens both positively and

negatively. It stated that social media brings entertainment and joy to the teens

especially does who are experience loneliness and have disabilities and chronic

disorder, it also allows the teens to create an online persona to help them express

their feeling freely. Social Media also helps teens to communicate with their family

and friends. However, the study also stated that social media may negatively affect

one self-being and may result to sleep deprivation, social pressure, cyberbullying

and symptoms of anxiety and depression.

In accordance with “5 Ways Social Media Affects Teen Mental Health”

(Gordon, S.,2020), To much use of social media may result to addiction of teens

to the social media due to some circumstances like Social Pressure. It may also

result to Sleep Deprivation, due to much exposure to blue light. Sleep deprivation

may result to academic decline, overeating, and health problems such as lower

immune system. Social media may also cause jealousy and envy which is common

among girls. According to the article, envy and jealousy is one of the major sources

of the cyberbullying which may result to anxiety and depression.

The article entitled, "#Sleepyteens: Social media use in adolescence is

associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem"

(Woods, H.C. & Scott, H., 2016) shows that the usage of social media by

teenagers is what causes them to experience poorer sleep quality, lack of self-

esteem, anxiety, and depression.

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 According to Woods, H.C. and Scott, H. (2016), teenagers who spend more

time using social media platforms develop poor sleeping quality due to excessive

usage of social media. By spending more time in it they neglect their health and

wellbeing. Individuals who are more emotionally invested in social media are also

those who are much more affected than those who are not which makes them

develop negative feelings and effects such as lower self-esteem, anxiety, and

possibly depression.

The Survival Mechanism of Teenagers who Undergo Mental Breakdown due

to Social Media.

The article entitled, "Stress Management and Teens" (American

Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2019) reveals that the responses

in the same mechanism that turns on stress can also turn it off. As soon as they

decide that a situation is no longer dangerous, changes can occur in their minds

and bodies to help them relax and calm down.

According to the article, the “relaxation response” includes decreased heart

and breathing rate and a sense of well-being. Teens that develop a “relaxation

response" and other stress management skills feel less helpless and have more

choices when responding to stress (AACAP, 2019).

The article entitled, "Social Media and Mental Health" (Robinson, L. and

Smith, M., 2020), discusses how do teenagers usually deal with mental

breakdowns due to using too much social media. They concluded four steps on

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how to reduce the level of anxiety, depression, loneliness, sleep problems and

FOMO. They also concluded that just being more mindful for their social media

use can have beneficial results on their mood and focus. Many of them access

social media purely out of habit or to mindlessly kill moments of downtime. But by

focusing on their motivation for logging on, they can not only reduce the time they

spend on social media, but they can also improve their experience and avoid many

of the negative aspects.

According to article, reducing time online can give their mind to rest.

Changing their focus will reduce their usage of gadgets and give more time in

priority. Spending more time with offline friends, set aside time each week to

interact your offline friends and family. Express gratitude, take time for reflecting

"keep track of all great memories in your life" (Robinson, L. & Smith M., 2018).

Prevention is better than cure: Ways to Prevent Having Mental Health Issues

due to Social Media Usage.

The article entitled: "Impact of Social Media on Youth Mental Health"

(The University of Nevada, Reno, 2019) discusses tips for teenagers and

children to prevent mental health issues. Preventing the negative effects of using

social media by teenagers and children begins by educating them about the

consequences. The article concluded guidelines for healthy use of social media to

prevent mental health issues.

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 According to the article, setting limits on the time spent on social media is a

way for teens and children to prevent mental health issues. Undergraduate

students who restricted their time on social media usage to 30 minutes a day

lessen depression and isolation for students on social media (Hunt, M. G., Marx,

R., Lipson, C., & Young, J., 2018).

Teenagers commonly compare themselves with what they see on social

media. Remember that what people see on social media is not real. People make

a big effort just to show that they have a perfect life on social media. However,

teenagers must know their self-worth and do not compare the lives of others

because people have their own paths. (The University of Nevada, Reno, 2019)

Also in the said article, it also discusses what teachers can do to prevent

mental health issues. In this way, teachers can help their students, especially

teenagers, to promote positive social media use. The best way for teachers to do

this is by listening to students and reminding them that there are many positive

aspects of life that have nothing to do with social media. Innovative activities that

enhance people's interaction and physical activity may be provided by teachers to

help students. Interactive activities such as Ice breakers, where students interact

and talk to each other, think-pair-share makes the students discuss and think

deeper in pairs. Teachers may encourage students to adapt what they have

learned in class to a real-life situation through case studies and problem-based

learning. (The University of Nevada, Reno, 2019)

The article entitled: "Social Media and Adolescents’ and Young Adults’

Mental Health" (Mir, E., Novas, C., & Seymour, M., PhD, National Center for

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Health Research, 2021) discusses what parents can do to prevent mental health

issues due to the use of social media of their children. In today's generation,

teenagers are more exposed to social media than adults who are busy with their

work schedules. In line with this, teenagers are more likely to have mental health

issues.

According to the article, before something happens, parents should talk to

their children about the proper use of social media. One way to prevent these

mental health issues is to check their children regularly to make sure that the online

behavior of their children is suitable and let children know that it is safe to become

more communicative with their own parents instead of keeping it by themselves.

However, doing daily surveillance may lead to a lack of trust between the parent

and the child.

Another way to help their children is to explain to them how social media

affects their feelings. As stated by Mir, E. et al. (2021), "Higher social media use

leads to body surveillance", which refers to monitoring one’s own body and

becoming judgmental of it." Teenagers start to have mental health issues when

they compare themselves to others. It is important for parents to keep in mind their

child that social media makes people and things look better and more attractive

than they are in real life.

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Change for the Better: Different Tips to Improve Mental health due to Social

Media Usage.

The article entitled: "Exercise for Mental Health" (Sharma, A., Madaan,

V. & Petty, F., 2006) this article shows on how to enhance Mental Health by the

way of Physical Activities or the title itself through Exercising. Because of the

influence that Social Media made, it is more needed to protect the Mental Health

of everyone. This article will show different ways on how to improve the Mental

Health.

According to Sharma, A. et al. (2006), lifestyle modifications can assume

especially great importance in individuals with serious mental illness. An

essential component of lifestyle modification is Exercise. The importance of

Exercise is not adequately understood or appreciated by patients and Mental

Health professionals alike. Evidence has suggested that exercise may be an

often-neglected intervention in Mental Health care. Some of the exercises are

aerobic exercises, jogging, swimming, cycling, walking, gardening, and dancing,

that have been proved to reduce anxiety and depression. These improvements in

mood are proposed to be caused by exercise-induced increase in blood

circulation to the brain and by an influence on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal

(HPA) axis and, thus, on the physiologic reactivity to stress.

Mostly one of the causes of the Mental Health issues are exposing too much

on Social Media that may result a problem to every teenager. To avoid too much

use of Social Media these mechanisms can help every teenager aged 15-18 years

old to improve their Mental Health through Exercising. The article indicates the

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different benefits of Physical Activities that can help Mental Health to enhance.

(Sharma, A. et al., 2006).

The article entitled: "8 Ways to Boost Your Mental Health" (McCallum,

K. 2020) Aside from Physical Activities, there's also individuals who are not

physically active but may still improve their Mental health. Knowing that not all

people are doing physical movements, this article will give 10 tips to improve

Mental health.

These tips are very essential to those people that not physically active. 1st

tip, Start a day in a positive note. Making a positive note is important, too.

Showing thankfulness, whether it is towards a person, someone else or

something else, can improve mental health. 2nd tip, do something that makes

yourself happy. Spend time on an activity that you enjoy it can improve Mental

health and wellbeing. 3rd tip don’t be ashamed to ask for help. Get help when

need it seeking help is a sign of strength not a weakness. 4th tip, Take sleep

seriously.

Sleeping helps us to recover from mental as well as physical exertion. 5th

tip, Set goals for yourself. Choose what to achieve either academically,

professionally, and personally, achieving a goal can help boost self-esteem and

self-worth. 6th tip, Socializing. Socialization can help improve Mental and

Emotional health, being social decreases mental health problems. 7th tip, Eat

healthy. Eating well-balanced meals full of foods rich in vitamins can help

improve a person mood and promote cognitive function. 8th tip, stay present

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Focusing on physical sensations person's experiencing can help quiet human's

busy mind and ground a person in the present moment. (McCallum, K. 2020)

Synthesis

The study entitled, “Teens and Social Media Use” (Madden M. et al.,

2013) is selected as part of the research paper because it helps and supports the

topic, it shows the data and percentage of teenagers who was using social

media. Teens describe these platforms as their way to connect and maintained a

relationship and learning more about the world.

The study entitled, “Is social media bad for mental health and

wellbeing? Exploring the perspectives of adolescents” (O’Reilly, M. et al.,

2018) is the chosen part of the study because it helps to understand and learn

what teens thinks of social media and the risks that may affect ones self-being

due to

The article entitled, “Social Media and Mental Health” (Robinson, L. &

Smith, M., 2020) is selected as a part of our research because in this study

explains why social media creates modern mental health problems. It describes

what are the driving factors of excessive use of social media.

The article entitled: "#Sleepyteens: Social media use in adolescence is

associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self-

esteem" (Woods, H.C. & Scott, H., 2016) stated that mostly teenagers are the

one who spend to more time using social media instead of having a face-to-face

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interaction with other people. Their generation has a higher chance to have a

mental disorder because on what they see on social media.

Teenagers are more afraid to be missing out or left behind by the trend of

social media instead of thinking on how to take care of their mental health.

Anxiety and depression are usually the mental disorders that the age 15 to 18

years old are going through. They tend to compare themselves and feel insecure

about their physical appearance because on what they see online, that will lead

to mental disorders.

This study was chosen because it explains why teenagers age 15 to 18

years old are having a depression and anxiety because of excessive usage of

social media.

The article entitled, "Stress Management and Teens" (American

Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 2019) was selected as a

related literature because it is from a relevant source backed up by information

research, as well as its significant contribution to the topic at hand. This article

emphasizes the different relaxation response and coping mechanisms that most

teenagers develop through their experiences.

The article entitled: "Social Media and Mental Health" (Robinson, L. &

Smith, M., 2020), the reason why the article is chosen was because it is easy to

understand, and all the information needed is in there. The article indicates how

teenagers deal with their mental breakdowns due to using too much social media

allowing the researcher to benefit the article.

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 An article entitled, "Impact of Social Media on Youth Mental Health”

(The University of Nevada, Reno, 2019) was chosen because it shows on tips

of preventing mental health issues for teenagers and it also shows on what

teachers can do to prevent their students in negative effects of using social

media by educating the students, especially teenagers. In addition to this,

teachers may find interactive activities to promote student's interaction.

An article entitled, "Social Media and Adolescents’ and Young Adults’

Mental Health" (Mir, E. et al., 2021) was chosen to be part of the study because

it shows what parents can do to prevent mental health issues due to use of social

media of their children.

The article named: "Exercise for Mental Health" (A. Sharma et al.,

2006) reason why this article was chosen because of its conciseness a complete

information or thought about the topic, and the most importantly the content it

provides different benefits on how to improve or enhance the Mental Health

including the different health benefits from regular exercise that should be

emphasized and reinforced by every mental health professional to their patients.

It also conveys additional knowledge about the importance of Exercise not just

on Mental Health but also to human's Physical Health.

The article entitled: "8 Ways to Boost Your Mental Health " (McCallum,

K. 2020) was chosen because of what article provides, it provides tips and not

only tips but tips with explanation that will be more helpful for individuals to know

the purpose of these 10 tips. the article is also showed conciseness that the

reader will surely understand the information of the study.

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Definition of Operative Terms

The following words are important to explain important components of the

study.

Survival Mechanism - refers to the situation of the teenagers who are

undergoing mental sufferings caused by social media.

Social Media - this refers to the affection that happened to the teenagers

that are needed to be aimed. This is also the main topic of our research.

Mental Health - refers to the development of their usage of social media.

Mental Breakdown - referring to the dealing of the teenager when they are

experiencing while using social media.

Psychological Distress - refers to one of the complications of being

influenced by using social media.

Internet - refers to the usage of teenagers who really using this for their

social media.

Offline Interactions - this refers to the teens who are using social media

but reported for multiple accounts and migrating to feel their freedom.

Social Animal - this refers to social media users as a major form of

entertainment.

Cyberbullying - refers to the results of unpleasant experienced in social

media. This also the cause of teenagers having depression using social media.

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 Depression - this is referring to the teenagers who are having a mental

breakdown caused by using social media.

Self-soothe - refers to them distracting themselves from their moods.

Online Identities - this is referring to the social media platforms that can

provide teenagers with valuable support.

Geographic Barriers - these are the platforms that can expose teenagers

to current events allowing them to interact.

Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal Axis - it refers to the improvements in the

mood that is proposed by the exercise-induced increase in blood circulation in

the brain.

Lifestyle Modifications - this is the importance of a person who is dealing

with serious mental illness.

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 Bibliography

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AACAP. (2019, January). Stress Management and Teens. American Academy of

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3.

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O’Reilly, M., Dogra, N., Whiteman, N., Hughes, J., Eruyar, S., & Reilly, P. (2018).

Is social media bad for mental health and wellbeing? Exploring the

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